NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell expects a game soon in Tokyo.
Goodell, who is currently in Paris as the league prepares to play its first game there, said the first regular season game in Japan would be in 2027 or 2028.
“Listen, Tokyo is definitely on our listwhether it’s next year or the year after that. This will happen in the near future. We will continue to focus on our priority markets, in which there are many, but there are other cities; this year we went to Rio instead of São Paulo,” Goodell told Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue on NFL daily.
Goodell said the NFL’s successful match in Australia in week one showed the league can play anywhere in the world.
“On a Friday morning at 10:30, having 100,000 people in the stadium, it was just an incredible feeling for us. I think it opened up new opportunities for us,” Goodell said. “Travel is something that we think we can handle and do without negatively impacting the teams. So each of these trips has taught us something and we’re benefiting from that and we’re opening these other doors as well. We plan on playing globally. That’s where we’re going.”
The NFL is about as popular as a sport could be in the United States, which means it sees foreign markets as key to the league’s continued growth. Tokyo could be the next foreign market. It certainly won’t be the last.
Gn sports
